Judge considers Boulder gay marriage license fight

File - In this June 26, 2014, file photo, Boulder County cerk Hillary Hall congratulates longtime couple Jennifer Knight, left, and Felice Cohen, after Hall granted them a marriage license, inside the offices of the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder, in Boulder, Colo. Hall began issuing licenses a day earlier following a federal appeals court ruling that Utah's same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. Republican State Attorney General John Suthers says the licenses arent valid, and has threatened unspecified legal action unless Hall, a Democrat, stops issuing the licenses. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, file)

By KRISTEN WYATT
Associated Press

Published: July 9, 2014;Last modified: July 9, 2014 02:34PM

BOULDER, Colo. — Gay couples tired of waiting for Colorado’s same-sex marriage ban to be struck down have no choice but to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court, state lawyers argued Wednesday as they asked a Boulder County judge to stop the county’s clerk from ignoring a federal stay and issuing same-sex marriage licenses.

But some of the 100 gay people who have been issued marriage licenses in recent weeks testified that they’re being treated like second-class citizens while waiting for the nation’s highest court to act.

“It still feels like a separate-but-unequal status,” said Samantha Frazee, a Longmont woman who has a civil union and received one of the 100 or so marriage licenses issued by Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall.

Hall has been ignoring a legal stay issued by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against Utah’s gay marriage ban.

Lawyers for Republican Attorney General John Suthers, who sued Hall for issuing the licenses, argued that stories of harmed gay couples are moving, but that the court’s stay on its ruling must be obeyed.

“It’s not a final decision. It’s not binding in Colorado,” said Michael Francisco, Suthers’ assistant solicitor general.

Suthers has maintained that Colorado’s gay marriage ban remains in effect and that the licenses issued by Boulder are invalid.

Hall testified that she is justified by last month’s 10th U.S. Circuit ruling in Denver.

A three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that Utah isn’t permitted to ban marriages based on gender, though the judges stayed their own ruling pending an appeal by the state of Utah either to the full appellate court or the U.S. Supreme Court.

After the hearing, Hall told reporters that she wasn’t bothered by the fact that her county was issuing same-sex marriage licenses but the other 63 counties are not. Suthers has argued that Hall’s actions are causing “legal chaos” because the marriage standard is inconsistent.